Claude Leroy
Loading
13th February, 2012
Ghana's Coach And Players Should Not Be Blamed - Claude Leroy
Ex Ghana coach Claude Leroy says the coach and players cannot be blamed for Ghana’s 2-0 defeat to Mali in Nations Cup third-place playoff game.
A double strike by Cheikh Diabate saw a deflated Black Stars lose out on bronze medal at the 2012 Nations Cup after starting the competition as one of the tournament favourites.
However former Ghana coach Leroy who himself had to deal with the bitter disappointment of missing out a CAN final with Ghana in 2008 says under-pressure coach Goran Stevanovic and his players are not to be blamed for Saturday’s defeat.
“In 2008 when we (Ghana) lost against Cameroon it was terrible and we had to speak with the players to explain to them that we cannot finish like and we had to save third place,” he told GHANAsoccernet.com after witnessing Ghana’s defeat to Mali.
“In the first 30 minutes of that game against the Ivory Coast in Kumasi we were very bad and we had to fight in the changing room that we can’t miss this game also and they played fantastic in the second half.
“Today it was even more difficult because it was not at home it was here in Malabo and the target was not to finish third, it was to finish first.
“So it is more of a psychological problem than a technical or tactical problem.”
*Defender John Paintsil has rubbished talks of disquiet in Ghana’s camp after their Nations Cup semi final defeat to Zambia.
A lot of comments on social networking sites purport alleged divisions in the Black Stars camp.
Some of the comments even went to the extreme to suggest pockets of physical exchanges between players.
But Paintsil who captained the side three times in the tournament in the absence of substantive John Mensah appeared shocked when asked about these reports.
“Since I have been in the national team, such thing has never happened,” he said.
“Whether lose, win or draw, we still keep our heads up and we also talk to ourselves that there are more games ahead.
“In the Black Stars we love ourselves and because of this unity, everywhere we go we succeed and we will keep on going until finally we get the gold.”
Ghana will now have to pick up the pieces quickly before the commencement of the 2013 and 2014 Africa and World Cup qualifiers starting with a friendly against Chile to be played later this month in the US.
A double strike by Cheikh Diabate saw a deflated Black Stars lose out on bronze medal at the 2012 Nations Cup after starting the competition as one of the tournament favourites.
However former Ghana coach Leroy who himself had to deal with the bitter disappointment of missing out a CAN final with Ghana in 2008 says under-pressure coach Goran Stevanovic and his players are not to be blamed for Saturday’s defeat.
“In 2008 when we (Ghana) lost against Cameroon it was terrible and we had to speak with the players to explain to them that we cannot finish like and we had to save third place,” he told GHANAsoccernet.com after witnessing Ghana’s defeat to Mali.
“In the first 30 minutes of that game against the Ivory Coast in Kumasi we were very bad and we had to fight in the changing room that we can’t miss this game also and they played fantastic in the second half.
“Today it was even more difficult because it was not at home it was here in Malabo and the target was not to finish third, it was to finish first.
“So it is more of a psychological problem than a technical or tactical problem.”
*Defender John Paintsil has rubbished talks of disquiet in Ghana’s camp after their Nations Cup semi final defeat to Zambia.
A lot of comments on social networking sites purport alleged divisions in the Black Stars camp.
Some of the comments even went to the extreme to suggest pockets of physical exchanges between players.
But Paintsil who captained the side three times in the tournament in the absence of substantive John Mensah appeared shocked when asked about these reports.
“Since I have been in the national team, such thing has never happened,” he said.
“Whether lose, win or draw, we still keep our heads up and we also talk to ourselves that there are more games ahead.
“In the Black Stars we love ourselves and because of this unity, everywhere we go we succeed and we will keep on going until finally we get the gold.”
Ghana will now have to pick up the pieces quickly before the commencement of the 2013 and 2014 Africa and World Cup qualifiers starting with a friendly against Chile to be played later this month in the US.
Popular stories from Sports
